Humanity Rising
by Induce Lucidity
Summary: You just don't get it Jake. We're not going to lay down and die. Beat us, burn us, bring Heaven and Hell down on our heads we're still going to fight. We'll fight you, your tribe and this whole damn planet for every last breath. That's just human nature.
1. Arc One: The Arrival

_James Cameron's Avatar_ is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

-Personally though, I think the story will always belong not only to James Cameron, but to every one of the (literally) hundreds of people who worked so hard and for so long to bring Pandora and all of its wonders to the masses.

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* * *

The nights on Pandora were never truly dark and even less likely to be quiet. This was especially true at the new _Kelutral_ of the Omaticaya clan where the night was accented by the sound of cooking fires, conversation, and laughter. Smoke rose from the base of the tree and carried the scent of gently roasting _yerik_ and _talioang_ meat with it, wafting to the higher reaches of the Omaticaya's home. The aromas climbed the up the twisting height of the _kelutral_, silently passing the sleeping blue forms that rested on branches and in cocoons of soft fiber, until it reached a large platform-like hammock and began teasing the nose of one particular Na'vi.

Jake Sully looked away for a split second to home in on the source of the scent and received a yank on the ear for his trouble.

"_Oouch_!" Neither he nor Neytiri could hold back laughter as he wrapped his fingers around the tiny hand that clutched the pointed tip of his ear. "_She's got a strong grip_", Jake smiled as he gently coaxed the infant's hand onto his finger and off of his head.

"_Careful, she bites too."_ Neytiri couldn't help but smile at the child she held against her heart. The baby in her arms giggled back, hands still tightly wrapped around her father's hand.

_"Really?"_

_ "Skxawng!"_ Neytiri smirked playfully as her mate scooted closer to his mate and draped his free arm around her shoulders.

"_Sounds like a happy family"_ The couple looked up to see the familiar blue forms of Norm who, along with half of the original avatar team was walking along one of the larger branches which hung above the _nivi_ hammock where Jake and Neytiri were resting. It had taken ages for the Na'vi to accept the dreamwalkers as allies and only within the last two years had a choice few of the scientists been allowed into the new _Kelutral, _though, in truth, Jake could hardly blame the Omaticaya. Of the ten present only half wore the traditional Na'vi loincloth, the rest were content with the ragged remains of whatever clothing they had been able to scavenge from Hell's Gate. Norm wore the faded remains of a red t-shirt even though it barely counted as clothing at all. The rips and tears it had gathered over the years clearly showed the healed over bullet wounds his avatar had collected nearly ten years ago.

"_We brought you some dinner."_ Norm smiled as he dropped from the branch onto the _nivi_ and passed Jake a handful of food before hustling over to Neytiri. The hammock creaked with the added weight but the fibers which held it taught against gravity refused to give. The rest of the scientists-gone-native either sat down on the branch above and began to eat or hopped down to the _nivi _to get a closer look at the newest addition to the Omaticaya clan.

Norm, forgetting the cultural divide, quickly made an ass of himself.

_"Hey there little girl. Hey. Hey." _He waved his finger in front of her in the general reaction most people have with children that aren't their own. Jake rolled his eyes and bit into the _nikt'chey _while the rest of the scientists had to fight down snorts of laughter. Neytiri's ears immediately went flat against her head and her tail began to swish back and forth in agitation.

_"What are you doing, Norhman?"_ Her voice had all the tenderness of a tiger about to pounce.

"_Oh, I ahh-"_ Norm stumbled over his words as the baby happily released her father's hand and grabbed the newest one.

"_It's a sky people thing, Neytiri, he's just playing with her"_ Cassandra, a shorter sharp featured avatar who wore traditional Na'vi garb and acted as the team's xeno-biologist, came to Norm's rescue. She sat on the branch above him, kicking her legs back and forth in the air smiling. "_He doesn't mean anything by it. He just wants to make her laugh."_ The rest of the team finally broke into fits of laughter; some of them even had to dig into the bark of the branch to keep from tumbling over the side. Neytiri's ears remained flat against her head but the threat of injury left her eyes, only to be replaced by a look of stunned fascination.

"_Do all Sky People act this way around their children?"_ Neytiri had always wondered how the Sky People raised their young. So far she was less than impressed.

"_Usually,"_ Cassandra smiled as she took a bite of _yerik_.

Cassandra and Neytiri had not begun their friendship on the best of terms, though truthfully Neytiri had been the most accepting of the Omaticaya when the avatar drivers began to follow in Jake's footsteps. Many of the warriors who survived the Sky People's war hadn't liked the idea of dreamwalkers on their planet much less within their community. Jake was the only exception, he was the Olo'eyktan and the sixth Toruk Makto. Everyone else was still an interloper. After almost ten years only half of the original Avatar team had been allowed to train and eventually join the Omaticaya. Cassandra was the first to complete her training, and a month later she was also the first to accept Ewya's greatest gift. To leave behind her human skin and take her avatar body as her true form.

When she had finally made the switch whatever animosity between Neytiri and Cassandra evaporated and the two became fast friends. Each was curious about the other's culture, which made conversation inhumanly easy between the two of them. The rest of the team had a little more trouble getting the Omaticaya to warm up to them but there were many hopeful signs that the divide separating the two species was beginning to fade completely.

"_So,"_ Norm quickly regained his composure, "_Have you guys given her a naiimE!"_ Norm whipped his fingers out of the little girl's mouth and she giggled reflexively. "_She bites!"_ He looked at Neytiri with indignant disbelief but she, and the rest of the team, only burst into a renewed laughter.

"_Until Mother can perform a naming ceremony, this one is called Unil." _Neytiri ran her fingers down the baby's nose before kissing the child on the forehead. Unil smiled, cross-eyed, up to mother. Her Na'vi features were prominent, but hints of a human heritage were also obvious. Her eyes were smaller than a pure Na'vi and her nose more slender. Her hands, however, had the traditional four digits and her skin was the same sapphire as her mother's. The fact that she had been born at all was nothing short of a miracle, as many of the scientists had no clue if Avatar and Na'vi genetics were naturally compatible since the idea of scientists mating with the natives had never been considered, let alone tested.

For a while there was only laughter. Laughter as Jake gave Neytiri something to eat and took baby Unil into his arms. Laughter as Norm was tossed a _nikt'chey _and missed catching it only to see it bounce off the _nivi _and into the open air below. Laughter as Cassandra, Aaron—the team's field medic and resident daredevil—and Jake talked about the day's hunt, about work that still needed to be done to fortify the new Hometree, and about the current status of the other Avatars who had chosen to train with the Omaticaya.

" Jake! Jake, are you there?" The sound was mechanical and accented with a rush of static. "JAKE!" Handing Unil to Neytiri, Jake stood and walked over to the large branch the other avatars sat on. This branch was where his _Chey_ hung. It was also where a comlink was beeping furiously in a desperate attempt to get the attention of anyone close by. Flipping the switch on the back of the machine Jake brought the tiny monitor to life. On screen was the face of a familiar bearded human: Dr. Max Patel, one some twenty scientists, mechanics, and mercenaries who had mutinied against the RDA and took the compound for the Na'vi. Max was usually an easy going guy and because of this nearly everyone at the former base liked him. The avatar team was especially appreciative of Dr. Patel, mostly because it was his generous donation of time which kept the avatars that hadn't transferred their minds up and running.

"_Max? What's going on?"_

_ "_Speak English_!" _Max wasn't snapping, it sounded like he was panicking. His face was twisted with worry and beads of sweat were rolling across his forehead.

"Sorry, what's wrong?"

"There's something coming!"

"What?"

"Jake, it's the satellites, they just turned on all of a sudden, and the readings… something's just entered the system!"

"WHAT?"The color drained from Jake's face. It couldn't be, it was too early. It was far too early.

"Jake, I think it's them. I think it's a ship."

"Max, it can't be them, it's too soon, they shouldn't be back for at least another two years, you said so yourself!"Neytiri's ears went back and the eyes of everyone present went wide. Suddenly Max's panicked state made perfect sense.

"Jake, it was a model, an educated guess. They shouldn't be here, I know, Damnit, it should have taken them more time to figure out what to do!"

"Maybe it's a meteor or something just passing through the system."

"No, the satellites weren't the only thing to come on. Jake, the whole base is waking up! Computers, navigation systems, databanks, life support, things we shut down are just reactivating by themselves. Jake, it has to be them!"

Nothing but silence. Jake held the comlink as if it were about to explode and there was nothing he could do to stop it. His knuckles were white. He swallowed and tried to talk, but all that came out was a strangled whisper.

"How long do we have until they get here?"

"Jake, it's moving fast,"Max turned the camera of his comlink to one of the holographic monitors in Hell's Gate's control room. Jake could see a model of Pandora's system, its stars and sister moons orbiting around Prometheus, but what drew his attention was the small red dot tracing a flashing line across the display

"If it maintains speed…" Max's voice was shaking and his comlink was wobbling in his hand, "they'll be at Hell's Gate by morning. This thing what ever it is, hasn't decelerated, it hasn't changed course. It's coming right at us."

Jake dropped the machine, his face blank as the comlink bounced to his feet on the _nivi_. Everyone was staring at him, Neytiri held Unil close to her chest.

"_You said they wouldn't come back yet" _There were tears forming in Neytiri's eyes as her daughter began to cry.

"_Neytiri" _Jake felt numb, he felt like his world was crashing down. He felt like the fear building up at the bottom of his chest was going to burst out and… no. He swallowed that feeling he pushed it to the back of his mind. There was time to be scared later. He had known they would come back eventually, they had to, but something was wrong. Why only send one ship? How had they gotten organized so quickly?

He stooped to the comlink, "Max, we're on our way."In one swift movement he switched off the machine and connected it to a strap of leather hanging on his shoulder. He grabbed his bow and knife before turning to face his mate. "_Neytiri," _she wasn't crying anymore, whatever fear had rooted in her heart she banished it just as Jake had. Now there was only a steely flash in her eyes as she wrapped a squirming Unil in soft _talioang _leather and secured the baby against her chest. She nodded to her mate.

"_Let's go."_

Catlike, she leapt up to the branch where the other avatars already stood waiting. Jake was up and running down the massive branch after her a second later and his team followed him as fast as they could. Their feet dragged hard against the wood of Hometree, searching for traction, the cool night air whipped by their faces. They didn't worry about falling, they didn't care about tripping, and their only concern was the path ahead.

To Jake the next few moments were a flurry of green and blue, of half blurred faces and half heard greetings as he pressed past the members of the clan who went about preparing for a restful night that now would never come. They ran to the base of the _Kelutral_, leaping from branch to branch and never seemed to approach the ground fast enough.

"_MO'AT,"_ he shouted. _"MO'AT!"_ Before he realized it they were on the ground, where the People gathered to share their meals, where the cooking fires suffused the air with sweet scents. "_MO'AT!"_ he called again and again, searching for the _Tsahìk, _soon Neytiri and the rest of his team were shouting as well. Faces turned and idle conversations stopped cold. Suddenly it was as if the group was the center of the universe.

"_What is going on?"_ Mo'at's voice was filled with worry. For the dreamwalkers to shout in the Hometree was a nuisance. For her daughter to sprint to the ground with a baby in her arms shouting with them, that was cause for concern.

"_Mother, it's them"_ Neytiri's eyes were wide and she was breathing hard, Unil was crying. "_They're back, the Sky People are back!"_

If Mo'at panicked she didn't show it. She looked to her daughter and to the Toruk Makto.

"_We need to get the People away from the Hometree." _this time it was Jake who spoke, "_We need to hide them somewhere where they can't be seen from the sky."_

_ "The forest could hide them"_ Cassandra offered. She was gasping hard but forced herself to continue, "_as long as they got away from the Hometree, RDA wouldn't be able to tell their heat signals apart from the animals."_

Jake nodded in agreement. So long as there were satellites in orbit the Na'vi would have to hide in plain sight.

_"Mo'at, can you take the People, somewhere safe in the forest?"_ She nodded. "_Alright, get them out of here. You, you and you round up ten of the best hunters here and meet me at the ikran roosts" _Jake pointed to three Na'vi in turn. Everyone at the base of the Kelutral had gathered around Toruk Makto and shouts of fear echoed out when they learned of the Sky People's return. "_Now!"_ he shouted, sending the three, who had been standing numbly, scrambling to gather the hunters. A decade of living amongst the Na'vi had shaped Jake into a leader, a lifetime in the marines had forged him into a soldier and now both halves were needed to protect his home.

"_Only ten?"_ It was Norm, he was breathing hard like there rest of the group.

"_We're not attacking Norm, we need information. What are they doing here, how many enemies, did they bring heavy guns or light infantry? These are things we need to know before we strike." _Jake didn't snap but he needed his people to trust him. Norm nodded and stepped forward, meeting Jake's gaze. The years had changed Norm as well, just as they had changed everyone else.

"_We're coming with you."_

"_Only if you're on your ikran in five minutes."_ Jake spun around to face his mate.

"_Neytiri go-"_

_ "I am coming with you as well." _She had already taken Unil out of her harness and given the baby to Mo'at who fastened the child to herself. Jake hadn't noticed before but she had her bow slung across her shoulder.

"_Neytiri plea-"_

_ "I need to see them Jake." _Her eyes were full of fury, they looked as though they were literally on fire, "_I need to know if they mean harm to the People"_ Jake didn't even try to stare her down, he knew that was a match he would loose. Instead he unhooked the clasps that held the comlink to its harness and held the device momentarily, feeling its weight, before handing it over to Mo'at. "_Here, we will use this to tell you if the aliens mean to do us harm."_ She nodded and took the comlink, holding it while at the same time trying to touch as little of the device as possible—Mo'at's opinion on Sky People technology was well known—and turned to her daughter.

Jake bent down and kissed Unil softly on the forehead, "_Mo'at, please keep her safe, please." _

"_As if I would let anything harm my granddaughter." _Mo'at didn't even try to sound offended, though the false outburst allowed Jake to laugh nervously as he kissed his daughter's head again. With that he turned and sprinted to the lowest handhold of the Kelutral, seized it and vaulted up onto the path to the _ikran _roosts. Norm and the other Avatars followed close behind and several hunters after them. Neytiri remained and kissed her child softly as the People made ready to disappear into the forest.

"_She will need to nurse soon"_ Mo'at's matter-of-fact tone cracked with genuine worry. She had tears in her eyes as she placed a hand on Neytiri's shoulder. "_She will need her mother before long."_

_ "Then her mother will have to make it back," _Neytiri smiled as she carefully hugged Mo'at, "_Sky People or not."_

With that she turned and ran after Jake. Mo'at stood for a few moments, staring blankly at the empty space Neytiri had occupied before leaving.

"_Eytukan, please… please watch over our daughter…"_ Then she turned and shouted to the gathering crowd telling them of the return of the Sky People, of the Na'vi who flew to meet them and of the protection they would be seeking in the forest.

* * *

It felt as though no matter how fast they flew it wasn't nearly fast enough. Jake's ikran screeched with impatience but its rider spurred it onwards, and the beast could feel the urgency in the command. Jake led a formation of some twenty riders, made up of the hunters he needed and the avatars that refused to stay behind. Neytiri flew beside Jake and seemed to be the only other rider as focused as he was.

They had flown for hours and the night had bled away into a dawn which carried the promise of a downpour. Thunderheads cracked in the distance as the forest's bioluminescent glow faded into a muted green. There were no battle cries or shouts about the foolishness of the Sky People for returning. There was only the sound of wind rushing by.

They reached Hell's Gate before the clouds had a chance to release their deluge. The base's pentagon shape cut a five mile wound in the surrounding green. Thick chain-link fence towered over the flat asphalt landing pad and added to the bases unnatural feel.

"_We'll land there." _Jake pointed to one of the gun towers the group was fast approaching "_I want three of you to spread out to those other towers,"_ he pointed to each of the neighboring towers in turn,_ "and keep watch." _They had slowed down so that Jake's voice could be heard clearly over powerful wing beats. "_Then I want the rest of you to find a good spot and stay hidden until we know what they want. Norm, you and me will go to the base and make sure everyone got out."_

There was a thunderclap, far louder than any heard on Pandora.

_"That's a sonic boom! They're here!"_ Jake couldn't tell if it was Norm, or Cassandra, or one of the other avatars.

"_Everyone down!"_ Jake steered his ikran into a nosedive and plunged through the thick green canopy, his warriors following right on his tail.

They bobbed and weaved through the twisted maze of thick branches and green vines as the roar of an engine became louder and louder until their eardrums threatened burst. Then as suddenly as it had appeared the engine's roar cut off. The hunters landed and hid themselves at the tree line just, looking out at Hell's Gate.

The base had seen better days, and though the nature of its construction and the strength of the herbicides used when it was maintained by the RDA had kept the foliage at bay for almost a decade, Jake could see grasses and stems forcing their way up between cracks in the airstrip and vines climbing up the side of long abandoned buildings. However, it was the shuttle that held his attention.

"_What the hell is that?"_ Jake recognized the voice this time, it was Aaron's harsh whisper, he had already drawn his bow and was nervously pulling an arrow taught. The Toruk Makto didn't scold his scout, in truth he wished he had an answer to the question, even as he motioned for Aaron to put his weapon away. The behemoth ship was the size of a mountain and it wasn't a shuttle that ferried troops to or from an ISV. It was something out of a science fiction story. The hull of the ship was bright silver in color, polished until it was a mirror but dulled by the grey sky overhead. The hulk resembled a whorl of metal with only a basic symmetry and a plethora of lights to remind that it was a ship and not a work of art. It hovered only a few feet above the airstrip, but with almost no sound aside from a loud dull drone. The blue lights that shone under its bulk warped the air beneath the ship so that the ground underneath looked like a mirage.

Above the heads of the hunters the thunderclouds cracked ominously.

"_I don't think that's human."

* * *

_

_**Kelutral-Hometree**_

_**Yerik- The little blue deer with the freaky mouth.**_

_**Talioang-Think giant space buffalo.**_

_**Skxawng-Moron**_

_**Nivi- It's like a huge flat family sized hammock. Usually its where mated couples and their budding families sleep.**_

_**Nikt'chey- Its like a Na'vi power bar, usually meats and fruits wrapped up in an edible leaf. **_

_**Unil- Dream**_

_**Chey- personal belongings rack, where you store your stuff.**_

_**Ikran- Banshees**_

Well there you go. Its not my first fanfiction, but it is my first in a while. If you like it or if you hate it post a review, I'd love to hear your opinions.

Id also like to give a shout out to my fantastic beta-readers! The Starving Thespian, WhiteWolf Demon-Slayer, Sheechiibii, and AsterEris, thank you all for making sure I didn't get lazy with this!-I.L.


	2. Arc One: Break the Horizon

James Cameron's Avatar is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

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Back when Hell's Gate had been running, the operations center was always full of movement. Technicians and engineers had literally turned the circular room into a hive of human activity. The din of clicking keys and harsh blue glow of holoscreens projected onto curved Plexiglas made the ops center into the indispensable coordinator of all RDA activity on Pandora. Now the dark rows of empty chairs and powerless computers were little more than a quiet place for Max to escape the rest of his fellow homo sapiens for a few moments of solitude.

It wasn't that he was an antisocial person. Max was actually one of the friendlier and more outgoing people left behind on Pandora. Still, every once in a while he just needed to be alone. Tonight it was for a personal reason, or at least it had been. Right now he was leaning back in a dusty swivel chair, his favorite copy of _Eywa's Bounty_ open and splayed across his chest; he had fallen asleep rereading Grace Augustine's last published work. He missed her a lot. More than he could ever really admit. His brown eyes were closed peacefully and his chest rose and fell underneath a braided beard which was far longer than Max was able to wear when the base had been under the control of the RDA. Though he still wore the tattered remains of a white lab coat, t-shirt and jeans, the years had changed Max. He had become thinner, more rugged, but also eager to enjoy the little things in life.

Max dreamed. He dreamed of walking through the wondrous alien jungles of Pandora without needing a suffocating breathing mask strapped to his head. He dreamed of trees that behaved exactly like the neurons he had spent most of his life studying, relaying and storing enough information to form a massive planet-wide consciousness. He also dreamed of an incessant humming. It was a familiar sound, but as Max laid outstretched in the loamy Pandoran soil, his hands behind his head and eyes closed, he didn't bother to try and remember why it was so familiar. The sound didn't want to be ignored though. It hummed stubbornly, and the tugging in the back of Max's memory became more and more pronounced until finally, his Pandoran haven melted away into the sterile interior of the operations center.

Max's eyes opened slowly and as he righted himself he heard his beloved book fall to the ground with a soft thud. Swearing softly, Max slid out of his chair and picked up his book, dusting it off before he noticed the change. The lights had come on. The operations center and many other parts of Hell's Gate had been powered down years ago to conserve energy. In fact Max had to bring in his own flashlight to read, but now the soft white glow of the florescent lights which hung overhead illuminated the room.

Max stood slowly, surveying the room as though he knew something had just gone horribly wrong. 'The brothers,' he thought, mashing his palm against his forehead with and exasperated sigh. 'Those two must have tripped the main energy lines' Max leaned back and tucked his beloved book under his arm as he fumbled around for the flashlight he brought with him to read. Still tired and feeling more exhausted every moment just thinking about dealing with Joseph and Charlie, Max stumbled out of the operations center and made his way to the armor bay letting the doors click shut behind him.

The room was quite for a long time after Max's departure, save for an unyielding hum and the flicker of a holoscreen coming to life.

* * *

Max's trip to the main storage facility for the vehicles and weapons left behind by the RDA was mostly uneventful. Nearly everyone was either relaxing in the mess hall this late in the evening or on their way to their quarters to get a head start on a night's sleep. Those whom Max did pass in the hallways gave a friendly word or a wave, but didn't try and keep the scientist from his goal.

Finally, after navigating his way down the maze of cold concrete hallways decorated with bare water pipes and a steel grate floor, Max reached the armor bay. Staring at the large metal door filled the doctor with more than a little apprehension. The brothers weren't terrifying or violent in any way they just both had a strange sense of humor on a planet where most living things didn't have a regular sense of humor. When they had been under the command of Miles Quaritch they had at least been tame, but as soon as the Colonel was gone their true personalities surfaced almost immediately.

Max hit the keyboard next to the entrance and the doors opened with a barely audible hiss. The smell of artificial oil slammed into his nostrils as the harsh white lights of the armor bay dazzled him for a moment. The hangar before him was little more than an airtight warehouse that was attached to the main base. Rows and rows of wrecked Samsons and AMP suits took up most of the space in the armor Bay. Machines littered the ground and were even piled high into the corners when the rows of the warehouse failed to provide enough room for the derelicts.

"I'm telling you it could work."

"And I'm telling you that it won't work…ever…ever…Ever!" Max palmed his face again; he had managed to walk in on another one of the brothers' infamous arguments. He moved towards the two men who were both facing a twisted Samson aircraft that lay on the ground like a broken toy. Joseph, the older brother, was on top of the machine happily munching on an algae bar. He was the elder by three years but acted like he never quite grew up and though he could pilot almost any machine Quaritch put him into, but usually it took him more than a few crashes to get it right.

"You see this, this right here" he motioned back and for the between him and his brother, who was down in the engine of the machine, "this is why we never get along. You never agree with my amazing ideas!"

Without looking up from the contents of the Samson's engine Charlie, the engineering genius, snapped back "Your idea is to jump naked, let me stress that, NAKED onto unsuspecting criminals. How the hell does that save the victim?"

"Simple, say I'm kicking the crap out of some guy," Joseph mimed punching air and kicking a prone form, "and then all of a sudden out of nowhere a naked guy jumps on my back…How do I comeback from that?"

"Oh gee I don't know maybe by kicking the shit out of the naked guy?" Charlie kept his eyes locked on the engine as he yanked out a tangled mess of wires and tubes with all the surgical grace of a brick hitting a window.

"Excuse me guys but," Max ventured, but the brothers ignored him.

"I would be in shock! There's a random naked guy on me!" Joseph finished his algae bar and balled the wrapper up before pocketing it.

"You'd be shocked, but I'd kick his ass. Naked or not." Charlie finally looked up from his work and spotted Max. "Hey boss what's up?"

Charlie walked over to Max and offered him a greasy handshake as Joseph hopped down from the Sampson and meandered over. Physically the two could have been twins if Joseph hadn't been born three years before Charlie. They both had a head of messy black hair, both were abnormally tall (easily a head over most of the other people at Hell's Gate), both had broad shoulders and brown eyes. Though that's where the similarities ended.

Charlie loved machines, building and working on the vehicles of Hell's Gate was his version of a good time and he spent most of that time taking parts from one vehicle to build another.

Joseph was slightly taller than his brother, but not by much though he had a wider frame than his willowy younger sibling. Joseph's defining feature was that he was insanely lucky. The man had walked away from more crashes than even Charlie could remember, which is why he was usually the test pilot for what ever monstrosity his brother could dream up and put together.

"Did you guys touch the main power lines?" Max was blunt and with the brothers it paid to be. They were decent enough people, but they had short attention spans and tended to want to do their own thing more than anything else.

"Nope, don't mess with that any more, not since last time" Joseph smiled remembering the incident many had dubbed Hell Week, when he and his brother had accidentally clipped a power line with an out of control Sampson and killed climate control in the base for almost a week. He had to stifle a giggle.

"You didn't reroute anything, or cannibalize a fuse box?" this time Max looked at Charlie.

"No sir, I only work with stuff that's not attached to the walls" Charlie absentmindedly wiped his hands with his favorite grease rag, the mess of cables he extracted from the Samson tucked under his arm.

"Well the power in the Ops Center just came on, are you sure you two didn't mess with anything?"

"Positive" they answered in unison. Joseph's necklace of firing pins jingled as he nodded enthusiastically just as Charlie's sister necklace of ignition rings clicked together as he scratched his head. When the two had sided with the Na'vi almost ten years ago, Max had walked in on them taking the firing pins out of rifles so they wouldn't shoot correctly, and removing ignition rings out of Samsons to ground the aircrafts. They had been lucky it was Max who discovered their mutiny, if it had been Quaritch—the only man who could ever bring them in line—they would have been shot on the spot.

"Alright," Max closed his eyes to concentrate. If the brothers said they didn't know what had happened then they were most likely telling the truth or bidding time to fix the problem, either way Max wouldn't get anymore out of them. "Stay out of trouble ok?" With that he turned and left closing the door behind him.

The brothers stared at the closed door for a few moments. They weren't used to Max leaving so abruptly but if there was something going on with the base's power then it was well warranted.

"So…"ventured Joseph, "are those for the NUmbSKull?" He pointed to the tangle of wires Charlie was holding onto.

"Oh yes." Charlie smiled with the flair of a mad scientist.

* * *

As Max walked back to the Ops room, his favorite book still tucked under his arm, he noticed that the lights in the hallway were getting brighter; it was probably a side effect of the power getting kicked back on in the base, but he took note of it nonetheless. He walked into the Ops room, the door ajar already, and found Ivan staring at one of the many holoscreens that were now up and active.

"Hello Max. Did you turn on the power?" Ivan spoke with a very slight accent, which betrayed his origins as being somewhere around the Balkans back on Earth.

"No, I just got back from seeing the brothers in case they did." Max smiled at the engineer. He was older than most of the people at Hell's Gate, a shorter man with the face of a wizened apple topped with thinning white hair and covered with rough stubble from irregular shaving. Ivan had been in charge of maintenance when Hell's Gate was still under RDA control. He was a very moral man and of this Max was particularly grateful. Ivan had locked dozens of soldiers in their barracks when the Na'vi came to take Hell's Gate after the battle for the Tree of Souls. He was also one of only a handful of men who could keep the life support systems of the base up and running, so having Ivan elect to stay behind when the RDA shipped out had been nothing less than a godsend.

"Then you might want to see this," Ivan pointed to the holoscreen he was watching so intently. Max walked over and peered closely at the words which kept blinking across the screen: Landing beacon activated. 'Oh shit' was the only coherent thought that Max could form.

"Ivan shut these down."

"I have been trying Max, for a while now. It won't respond to any code I know and I know every one." Ivan was very calm, unnervingly so. Maybe he had seen too much in his life, but it seemed like he had accepted what was going on without the panic which was now starting to take hold in Max.

"Ivan, where are the comlinks?" Max's gaze was transfixed on the small red print flashing across the screen.

"Far side of the base in the communications closet." Max turned and left, power walking down the hall, trying as hard as he could to keep from rushing into a panic induced sprint, he left his book behind balanced on the edge of a holoscreen counter. Ivan moved to follow him but a beeping from the holoscreen caught his attention. He turned to the screen and though his complexion remained as nonchalant as it had been when Max was present, Ivan's blood stopped cold in his veins.

"Oh shit," he said to no one in particular. The holoscreen had brought up a digital model of the system. Currently a small red dot was making its way slowly towards Pandora. The bottom of the screen flashed the message: ETA approximately 13 hours. The message blinked twice and then the countdown began.

* * *

Max made it to the communications closet in record time, considering it was at the far end of the base. He popped open the doors and nearly jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Max did you turn on the power?" It was Audrey. She was the medical officer for the base. A woman of medium build she had more strength than her frame betrayed, seeing as she had spent most of her time on Hell's Gate wrestling buff marines down to take their inoculations. For all their boasts most of them had been terrified of needles. In time, though, the soldiers began to fear the ginger redhead more than any needle. "The entire medical station's activated." She had kept only a fraction of the massive medical ward online, needing at most only five beds to take care of the remaining humans on Pandora.

"No, we're trying to figure out what's going on." Max looked back to the closet and selected a comlink from the pack. Pulling it out and looping the strap around his shoulder he closed the closet with a click. "I've got to go Audrey, I'm sorry." He spun around and took off, leaving the medical officer standing numbly in the hall as the dim energy reserve lights—which had been the bases' source of illumination since the RDA was kicked out—powered down and the main lights booted up, finally fully charged. Suddenly the concrete walls of Hell's Gate were thrown into sharp relief.

* * *

Max turned on the comlink as he walked back to the Ops center. The small device went through its initial reboot phase and then began searching for other active comlinks before assigning each of those 'links channels. The whole operation took painstaking minutes to complete and was only finished as Max burst into the Ops center to find Ivan typing furiously into the computer.

"We have incoming" was all Ivan offered as he furiously typed shutdown codes into the computer, trying to disengage the landing beacon; it was an exercise in futility. Max saw the holoscreen and his mind quickly made the leap that he had been avoiding all night. They were coming back.

Max activated the comlink and selected the only channel that was open. "Jake! Jake are you there?"

* * *

After Jake's final response, Max and Ivan sat on the floor of the Ops center for a long time, their backs braced against the cold metal of the base of the holoscreen. The engineer had long given up shutting down the beacon as every code in his impressive memory had been rejected.

"We need to get out of this place" Ivan finally offered.

"How? We only have around four running Samson's and only two people who can even pilot them." Max finally began to realize how truly trapped humanity was on Pandora. "And even if we got everyone out we'd have to take them as far away as possible from Hell's Gate, probably out to the Hallelujah Mountains so RDA can't scan for us from orbit, but where would we go then?"

"The field labs, we could take them with us." Max was quiet for a while. This was probably the best idea, it wasn't a good one, since they would be trapped in the labs until either the RDA or the local wildlife found them, but if they stayed at the base they would be shot for sure.

"Ivan can you patch me through to the rest of the base?" Max's face was absent of any emotion.

"Give me a moment." The old engineer stood and there was the sound of typing of keys. Ivan pulled a small microphone from a compartment on the computer and handed it to Max. "Ok, go."

Max was quiet for the longest time as the rush of static could be heard in every room on Hell's Gate. He knew that everyone could hear his voice, no matter where they were. That scared him. What if he screwed up? What if they panicked? Clearing his throat Max began.

"Attention, please. Attention. Satellites have spotted a ship entering the solar system…We…We think its RDA." He paused, and in the back of his head Max could hear the hearts of everyone on base drop. For almost a decade these people have been fighting the wildlife, the atmosphere, and the limited space brought on by choosing to do what was right. Now they learned that the choices they made were coming back to shoot them in the foot. "We need to evacuate the base immediately, we're going to fly out in the field labs and regroup with the Omaticaya. If we stay here the RDA will arrest us and try us for treason at the worst or eco-terrorism at the very least. Everyone grab only the essentials, and get to the hangers in thirty minutes. Joseph, Charlie" Max paused again, his voice had cracked a bit. Finally he regained his composure "get anything that can fly ready and load up the field labs, we need to go now."

All over the base everyone dropped what ever they were doing and made ready to flee. For a while Max was grateful for the intercom system. He knew that people would panic if he told them face to face that they would most likely die, but the omnipresent electronic voice given to him by the Ops room had allowed Max to bluff them into trusting an unseen leader. Maybe it was human nature to follow directions given by an invisible source, maybe that would save them now.

The hours seemed to melt away. Max sleepwalked through briefing his fellow humans on the plan to abandon Hell's Gate, through the loading of the field labs and the take off of the Samsons loaded to the brim with refugees. They had decided that the avatar bodies would be left behind simply because they couldn't spare the room for the necessary driving apparatuses. Some of the remaining drivers, about half the original team, had groaned inwardly at this prospect but offered no resistance at all. Max had given up trying to hail Jake again, for what ever reason the ex-marine wouldn't answer his comlink, inwardly Max had hoped the Jake wasn't dumb enough to leave it behind. For now at least, Max sat in the Ops center.

It felt as though days had passed since the call for evacuation and yet the Samsons had made two trips so far. Only Max, Ivan, and Audrey had remained. They couldn't fly out on the last over encumbered Samson and had elected to stay behind so the brothers could get everyone else to safety. Max knew they would never make it back in time for the last three refugees. The night had sleeplessly merged into a stormy dawn. Even in the sterile interior of the Ops center Max could hear the thunderclouds crack overhead. For a while he wondered what the RDA would do when they arrived. 'Will they start another hack and burn campaign? Have they changed their ways? Was the latter too much to hope for?'

And then there was something far louder than a thunder clap. It was a sonic boom. Years spent living on the base when had been operating meant the three could recognize that sound anywhere. Max looked numbly up to the window and felt his jaw drop. He could see a ship approaching, but far faster than any human craft should be able to.

"My god…"It was Ivan, he stood up his hands tightening around a combat rifle that he had found, the man promised he wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Max, what is that?" Audrey was holding a similar gun, but without the conviction Ivan had. Her voice was full of wonder.

The ship was the size of a mountain and it was beautiful. A polished silver hull twisted into a symmetrical whorl. Lights poured from every opening as the roaring of a massive engine suddenly cut short and the ship hovered a few hundred yards from the Ops center. No one could speak for the longest time. From where they stood they could see that it was like no other human craft they had ever seen.

"What do we do now?" It was Ivan.

"Should, we go and see…"Audrey's voice betrayed unrestrained excitement as it trailed off. "They might be friendly."

"They might eat us," said Ivan. His grip on the gun tightened again. The man had seen a lot in his life, among which was the generality of aliens wanting to end his existence.

"Max what do you—MAX!" The doctor had already stood and fastened his breathing mask on his face. The mask's embrace was as familiar to Max as his own face in the mirror. He walked to the emergency door and only paused to looked back to check if Ivan and Audrey had already fixed their masks on as well. They had. With a hiss and the sounding of a klaxon alarm Max stepped out into the toxic air of Pandora. From his vantage point he could see a massive ramp being lowered quickly and that a figure was already making its way down from the ship. Max was too far away to make out any details but could tell that it was walking towards the base. He hurried down the stairs, fear and panic had been overridden with wonder. Commonsense had been smothered by fascination. 'Could there really be more out there' Max thought, 'yeah the Na'vi are aliens, but real aliens? Real spaceships and warp travel?' Max hurried to the center of the airstrip, barely aware that Ivan and Audrey were both following him. The three were silent as they walked. Slowly they got closer and closer to the figure and they could see that it was completely encased in a metal suit. It walked with a sense of purpose, never pausing or betraying hesitation of any kind. It was humanoid in build, two arms and two legs met in a very human torso which was topped by a masked head. Its metal suit resembled the texture of tank, dull, and comprised of plates that overlapped like the shell of a crab. When they were only a few yards away Max stopped and felt that his companions halt just behind him. The figure kept walking, until it was within arms reach of the three refugees.

"Are you Doctor Max Patel?" It asked with voice slightly accented with a rush of static.

"….What?"

"Are. You. Dr. Max. Patel?" It repeated the question, slower this time while stressing every word as if it were speaking to an idiot.

"Y-Yes that's me." Max offered dumbfounded.

"Good, sign here." The figure offered a slate that looked as if it were made out of clear glass. All across its surface lights danced and it was covered with a miniscule writing that Max recognized as English.

"W-what's going on?"

"Sign. Here." Ivan tightened his grip on his gun, his knuckles became even whiter.

"I don't understand," Max was truly lost.

The figure stretched out his hand in a blur of movement and aimed at the gun in Ivan's grasp, it immediately exploded. The old engineer cried out in surprise and fear as metal shards cut his skin. Audrey let out a terrified scream. The figure pointed his hand at Max.

"SIGN, NOW!" Max held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and the slate came to life. A line of light scanned across his hands and face and a small voice spoke from the slate.

"Dr. Max Patel. Delivery authorized." On the slate Max could see a years old picture of himself appear next to the writing. He could see his bearded and bespectacled face; the picture had been taken like a mug shot. Max recognized it as the photo he had submitted to the RDA so long ago for an ID card. The figure put down his hand and held the slate with what seemed to be a sense of pride.

Suddenly he took the slate in both hands and slammed it against the side of Max's head. It shattered and sent Max tumbled to the ground stunned.

"I've wanted to do that for the last four light years." The figure said laughing. He held two fingers against his temple and spoke. "Alright, let's dump the trash and get the hell out of here." With that he turned and marched back to the ship, laughing all the way as more ramps descended from the main hulk of the ship.

"Max! Max are you alright?" Audrey was at his side checking his head for blood. Ivan sat down behind him, his hands covered in cuts but thankfully he had escaped any real injury.

"What's happening?" Max was dazed but he could at least form that question.

High up above the clouds finally saw fit to release the rain they had held all morning.

* * *

* * *

Well there you go! Some of you may be scratching your heads wondering what's up with the plethora of OCs and the weird plot twist. Some of you may be kinda miffed that it took me so long to get it out there. Rest assured I know what I'm doing. I've been mapping out this story since Christmas and its going to be a good one I promise.

Anyways if you love it please review, if you hate it please review, if you want to set me on fire go ahead and review. I like knowing what's great, what's bad and what just plain sucks. Until Chapter 3! –I.L.

PS (Another shout out to my betas, seriously you guys are awesome!)


	3. Arc One: No Tomorrow

James Cameron's Avatar is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

---

My moms always told me I had something special. She never, not in all the years I knew her, told me what it was but I can still hear her voice. Even now, as the ramps descend into hell and the hazy toxic fumes of Pandora rush up into the cargo hold.

'There's somethin about you boy. Somethin special'

"Alright, pack it up bitches pack it up!" The voice sounds so lifelike that I almost think the bastard is in the cargo hold with us, but even that is too much to hope for. The owner of that voice, the man who's been taunting us all through the long months of our exodus, is tucked safely up in the heights of the _Brutus,_ probably on the bridge. Somehow I doubt he's ever even seen us. Maybe that's why he sounds so harsh, then again he probably doesn't care about what'll happen to us…why should he? After today humanity dies and the human race enters its golden age.

The cargo hold is flooded with the natural light of a Pandoran morning and outside I can hear thunder clouds and chatter of rain hitting asphalt. I almost wish I didn't have this filter on my face, it doesn't just pull the poisons out of the air it pulls all the scents too. I've never in my life smelled clean rain. In fact, I doubt any of us have.

The light invades the bowls of the _Brutus_ and for the first time in months I can see our prison. The grated metal floors beneath me are about as welcoming as the cold steel walls that seem to stretch on forever, featureless and without a single crease. The cargo hold of this ship is the size fifteen football fields; at least that's what that damn voice said when they packed us in here like animals. From where I stand the only wall I care about is the one that's falling down to form the ramp they'll march us out on.

No one talks, and for a moment that terrifies me more than anything waiting outside this ship.

"MOVE IT!" That same voice resonates through the hold and I can feel my bones quake at the volume. I hate that voice, I hate it so much that even as I scoop up the PSK I had tossed to me nights ago I want nothing more than to just find that man and rip out his tongue. PSK, Pandoran Survival Kit. The letters printed on the front of this heavy plastic briefcase seem like a sick joke. Still, I shoulder the woven straps of the case and begin to walk as the ramp touches the asphalt outside with a heavy clang. I'm not alone. There are so many of us that now I can't help but wonder how anyone could ever feel alone before getting shipped out. Hundreds of us, maybe thousands, packed onto this ship like cattle. Every invisible, every user, every lost soul and sad story, rounded up and sent out to die. We all got jammed into this together so the pigs could enjoy their perfect world. And now, we're going to rot in this new hell. Those bastards are using Pandora to wash our blood from their hands.

I step into the rain and even though the sky is overcast with a ceiling of gray clouds I have to shield my eyes from the dazzling light. The water feels good on my shoulders, its warm but it doesn't burn my skin like the rain back home on Earth, and for a moment I stop to look up. Thick heavy drops splatter against the lenses of my breathing mask, and even through the tempered plastic I can feel each drop as it hits me. The others simply walk past me without sparing a second to look at the sky.

The light falls on sunken shoulders and broken spirits. The only things that walk out of the _Brutus _are the people who gave up long ago. It's a flood of faded t-shirts, jackets, and torn sweaters; of coats, ripped jeans, and rags. Some of us were better off and others were beaten about as low as a person could get and still live.

The sound of metal smashing into earth filled the air as more ramps touched the ground and soon it's accompanied by the footsteps of more people being herded out of the _Brutus_. Just ahead lays Hell's Gate, our new home. It's a squat boxy cluster of buildings with curving glass windows and elevated towers. The derelict refinery is right next to the main compound. Twisting metal spires stretch high into the air as if to touch the sky itself. I know that back when this base was running those towers spewed clouds of smoke that could be seen for miles around as they refined the metals and fuels for the human empire. Today those towers are cold and even though they stand far away I can almost feel the vines creeping up their sleek metal slides and worming into crevices.

The straps of my PSK dig into my shoulders as I begin to walk again but I don't see the soldier until its too late.

"Move!" An armored hand literally throws me aside and my PSK goes clattering into the crowd. I recognize that bastard. A sick man who gets his rocks off punishing people who've been beaten enough as is. I'm not the only one to get shoved aside as the mercenary fights his way up the ramps back to the cargo hold.

"Awww. I think he's going to miss you Solomon." A familiar face offers me a hand up, which I take happily.

"Nah, that bastard probably has a whole line of punching bags waiting for him when he gets home. Doubt he'll give any of us a second thought." She pulls me to my feet and passes my PSK back to me. "So Lola, where's Daisy?" The girl in front of me shrugs, her pink hair falling down over the lenses of her breathing mask. Lola. The girl who can take just about any beating and hand it back on a silver platter. She's five feet of punk fury and ever since she and Daisy came to Mama's a few years back the two have been near inseparable. Her mask hides brown eyes and a small nose but anyone who can see would notice the muscles lurking beneath her torn jeans and faded hoodie.

"I dunno. We got separated by the crowd, I even loss Mama and KT in that mess."

"Well, go see if you can find her, I'll look for Mama."

"Good luck with that," she smirked. She actually smirked. Leave it to Lola to see this fresh Hell as just another challenge. But before I can say anything the crowd around us surges and she's gone in the blink of an eye.

The clouds overhead thunder ominously as the rain pours down.

***

Max was barely aware of the people shuffling past him or of the rain pattering against his mask. Audrey had propped him up against Ivan and was moving a small flashlight across his field of vision.

"Max, how are you feeling?" A pained groan was all he could manage at first but soon his world stopped spinning. There were people everywhere. Many of them seemed to just shuffle by without even acknowledging the three residents of Pandora. A few paused for a moment or two to regard them with sunken tired eyes, but then moved on without saying a word.

"Who," Max started but his throat caught and he spent a few seconds coughing up a cloud of dust he swallowed when his face hit the ground. "Who are these people?" Audrey merely looked around and shrugged puzzled. Ivan just watched the new arrivals pass by, regarding them as someone would regard a new threat.

"I don't know," was Audrey's puzzled answer. "They just started pouring out of that ship." She pointed to the giant metal goliath and for a moment Max thought he could make out an armored form throwing people out of its way as it climbed a ramp back up into the bowls of the hulk.

"I don't understand," Max held his head as the world began to spin again. "Why would the RDA--"

"Did you say RDA?" It was a new voice. How long had it been since Max had heard a completely new human voice? A very large woman made her way to where Max's team sat. "Do y'all work for the RDA?" She looked over them with a scowl that could have peeled the bark off of a tree. For what ever reason Max didn't feel like crossing this woman, who for all intents and purposes resembled a mother hen in a pink dress. She had bright blue eyes that flashed through her clear face mask and dark brown skin with a mass of black hair drawn back into a tight bun. Her face was round but right now was crumpled up into the ugliest expression Max had ever seen. "Just what the hell do you think you're doin? Do y'all think you have the right to take good people from their homes and drag them half way cross the damn universe just to dump them like trash? Well?" Max could barely meet her gaze, and from the grip Audrey was using on his shoulder he could tell that she was having the same problem. Something about his woman made him feel very small. Very, very small. "WELL?!" Even Ivan jumped.

"Mamma, they aren't with the RDA." This time it was a rough voice that cut in. A very thin girl stepped out from behind the she-tiger and regarded the Pandoran team with great interest. "RDA got shipped back to Earth a while ago, remember?" Her ragged voice sounded terrible, like it should come out of the mouth of some sixty year old chronic smoker.

"Child, don't you be telling me who's who aight?"

"She's right!" It was Audrey who spoke. "We…We're not with the RDA."

"You guys are the rebels right?" The girl's voice cracked through a wide smile. Her mask was the same model as Mamma's and offered Max a clear view to her pale freckled face and hazel eyes. On the top of her head was a beanie hat that was pulled down and hid all of her hair. "This is great, Mamma these are the guys who'll take care of us!" She was practically bouncing in place, her smile stretching clear across her face.

"Is that true," The she-tiger cocked an eyebrow, but kept an incredulous eye on the three scientists.

"I-I don't know…Wh-who are you people" was all Max could manage.

"Tsk. See Child, they don't even know what's happening." Rolling her eyes Mamma turned to leave but the girl pressed on defiantly.

"They said you guys kicked out the RDA years ago. They said we're your problem now. That means you'll take care of us right?" Her smile was met with blank stares.

"Hey Mamma! KT!" There was another new voice. From the crowd emerged a tall lean man. His skin was the color of loamy soil and his red mask fitted to his face following the curves of a human head. Two dark lenses stood in place of his eyes and a mane of thick dreadlocks flared out behind his mask. He wore a faded grey T-shirt with the lines "No Tomorrow" printed in black across the front. His pants were patched and torn in many places and his shoes were worn out from what looked like years of use. A plastic briefcase slapped loudly against his back with every step he took towards the forming group and the girl waved frantically to him.

"Solomon! You found us!"

"Solomon where have you been?" Mamma had her arms crossed and looked everything like a parent who had caught their child sneaking into the pantry for an ill gotten snack.

"Good to see you too Mamma." He smiled before noticing the scientists. "Who are they?" He nodded toward Max, Audrey and Ivan who were just now rising to their feet.

"We found the rebels," the girl, KT smiled.

"Great, hey man how do we get inside?" The new comer stared pointedly at Ivan, who only glanced towards Max. The scientist just looked at Solomon with an expression of utter confusion.

"They don't know who we are," it was Mamma who answered Solomon's question. Her arms were still crossed and she had a look of utmost disapproval plastered across her face. Solomon looked at Max.

"Is that true?" Max nodded slowly. In background the roar of unseen engines joined the patter of rain. The hulk had finished unloading its cargo and was now rising slowly into the air. Solomon turned to watch the silver mountain rise strait into the sky. "Isn't it obvious?" The roar got louder and louder and soon Max was aware that every person on the airstrip had their eyes glued to the spacecraft. With a boom that sent tremors throughout Hell's Gate the ship launched itself into the upper atmosphere and was gone. Without looking at Max, Solomon finished.

"We're your prisoners."

***

So, as it turns out College demands a lot of your free time. Sorry it took so long to crank out the third chapter but here it is in all of its glory. I've introduced the cast and set the players into position. Next chapter marks the beginning of a journey I hope you'll enjoy.—I.L.

P.S. I will not take two months to write it this time (again, sorry about that).


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